


Lionheart

by ashcat



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, F/M, M/M, Multi, Season/Series 02 Spoilers, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 01:55:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashcat/pseuds/ashcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A ghost from the past returns in the flesh to haunt Oliver's present causing past and present teammates to collide. But things may not be as broken as they first seem.<br/>Spoilers through 2x09</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lionheart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [storiesfortravellers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/gifts).



> Happy Holidays - I hope you enjoy this little treat! I took a few liberties with it after seeing the midseason finale.
> 
>  _Howling ghosts they reappear_  
>  _In mountains that are stacked with fear_  
>  _But you're a king and I'm a lionheart._  
>  Lyric and Title from King and Loinheart by of Monsters and Men

The moments before the proximity sensors went off were mundane. Oliver was doing his normal upper body workout on the high parallel bars while Diggle was practicing with the bow and Felicity did routine network maintenance. A typical Tuesday night when the Arrow wasn’t needed on the streets. Oliver had even allowed Felicity’s indie rock to play since he thought it was good for Diggle to practice with ample distractions. 

Oliver had refrained from telling them the kind of distractions he’d been subject to on the island. Shado and Slade hadn’t been as… gentle as he was with Dig’s training. 

When the alarm sounded, Oliver immediately dropped to the floor, looking around for the threat. 

Felicity began to tap furiously on her keyboard, pulling up video feeds of the building and killing the music. 

Diggle tossed Oliver the bow he’d been using and drew his gun, feeling more comfortable with it than the bow for an attack on home turf. 

Oliver caught it and rolled to grab his quiver, coming up to face whatever foe in only his thin, loose fitting cotton pants and combat boots. “Felicity, what do you see?” 

“I’m looking,” she said, typing furiously. “I don’t see anyone on the cameras.” 

“Which sensor?” 

“The one on the top far west window.” Felicity turned to look over her shoulder at Oliver. “Maybe it’s a false alarm?”

Oliver grimaced. “It’s not.” He nocked an arrow scanning the shadows. He thought he saw movement in the far right corner and he loosed in it’s direction aiming above the head of a person if they were standing there. “Show yourself!” 

A hand shot up and caught the arrow shaft before the tip could embed itself in the far wall. “For once the kid’s right, it isn’t a false alarm,” Slade Wilson said as he stepped out of the shadows into the light. 

Oliver visibly paled, eyes wide. He quickly looked to the sides trying to determine if he was hallucinating again since this was a ghost. A ghost… who had an eye patch and gray hair. 

Felicity stood up quickly, nearly falling in her haste. 

Diggle had trained the barrel of his weapon directly on the new person in the room.

Fuck, how was this even possible. Oliver fought his instinct to lower his weapon and welcome his friend. “Who are you?” 

Slade walked into the middle of the room, up near the open trunk on the table. He broke the shaft of the arrow in his hand and let the fletching drop to the floor. “That’s not how we taught you to defend yourself. Shoot first or at least disarm and bind prior to anything else.” He tsked in Oliver’s direction.

“Don’t come any closer. I don’t know who you are, but you’re not _him_. I saw that man die myself.” Out the corner of his eye Oliver could see Diggle moving to cover Felicity and felt grateful. The sight of this ‘ghost’ in his midst had him out of sorts. 

“You thought you did, kid. You were there when I was shot right here,” Slade tapped his eye patch. “It didn’t take,” he said then shook his head. “You should know it takes more to kill me than that.” 

Oliver frowned. “Bullshit. That man’s dead.” 

Slade spread his arms wide. “I seem to be alive and well. Can’t you even say my name anymore?”

“Slade Wilson is dead,” Oliver ground out, the words costing him.

“Oh no, Slade Wilson is alive and well. It’s Shado that Oliver Queen killed.” Slade’s eyes seemed to flash as Oliver noticed the way his muscles knotted and tensed. 

“Oliver, what’s going on?” Felicity asked, eyeing both men. 

“Apparently the kid thinks he’s seen a ghost,” Slade said with a grin that was more a grimace. He didn’t take his eyes off Oliver though.

Oliver’s bow came up to the ready again. “Prove it. What did Shado make that you hated once she caught you favoring your knee?” 

“Eucommia tea, she made pot after pot of the vile stuff and all but shoved it down my throat.” There was a softening and conversely hardening of Slade’s voice as he talked about Shado. He recovered enough to give Oliver a cocky grin. “I still was able to kick your ass twice in hand to hand even with a bum knee. I gave you the scar on your back below your ribs when you were too slow to dodge during training and Shado made you a Yarrow poultice that you whined hurt. I got told right off for not being careful with your delicate self.” 

Oliver lowered his bow, eyes wide in shock. “Slade?” he asked, voice raw. He was talking to a ghost, one of the friends he’d thought he’d killed who was miraculously alive? “How?” 

“Stupid fucking kid,” Slade said as he threw the arrow he’d caught back at Oliver, enough of the shaft left to heave it like a dart straight into Oliver’s unprotected shoulder.

“Look out!” Diggle shouted and he fired on Slade; he aimed to disable, not kill the man. He and Felicity weren’t sure what was happening, but he could recognize a fellow soldier. This man was very dangerous, especially if he was who had trained Oliver. 

Felicity screamed, starting to go for Oliver before Diggle pushed her back against the table with his body. 

Oliver was so poleaxed by Slade’s presence that his reaction time was not what it normally would be. The arrowhead bit deeply as it passed by his deltoid. He rolled to the side and held his bow but didn’t point it at Slade. He doubted he could beat him if he really wanted to kill Oliver. However, Oliver knew that him and his team would already be dead if that was Slade’s intent. They’d never have known what hit them. 

“Diggle stop. Get Felicity out of here.” Oliver wasn’t confident he could cover his friends and deal with this. His head was all muddled despite his training.

“Oh no, I think the girl should stay, don’t you? Shouldn’t she and Diggle hear what a lying, betraying asshole you are?” 

Felicity recovered herself as Slade denigrated Oliver. “Hey, whoever you are, you don’t have a right to say that about Oliver. You don’t know him. He’s a good man and friend.”

“Felicity,” Oliver warned. “You ne-” Slade started talking over Oliver before he could say more. 

“Oh, little girl, you know all of jackshit about the kid here. Did he already mesmerize you with his poor little rich boy cock? He likes to use that to drop your guard before he gets you _killed_ .” Spittle all but flew from his lips with the vehemence of his tone.

Oliver absorbed the words like blows, hurting more than any arrow against his flesh could. He didn’t try to defend himself, he knew Slade was right. He had lowered Shado’s defenses then gotten her killed. 

Felicity started to retort but Diggle stepped on her toes, making her yelp and then fall silent again.

“Maybe you should tell us the story and let us decide,” Diggle said, attempting to buy time to extricate everyone from this situation. 

Slade raised a brow. “You mean he hasn’t told you about us, Slade and Shado from the island? That Yao Fei saved his scrawny ass from starving and the payment he gave back the man was killing his daughter.” Slade spat on the floor. “Did seeing that blonde bitch get you so excited you forgot all about what Shado and her father had done for you?” 

“No,” Oliver whispered. He felt like he was trapped in a nightmare. If his arm wasn’t throbbing, hot blood streaking his arm and dangerously slicking his fingers on the undrawn arrow, he’d think it was a dream. He shuddered as he saw it all again, Professor Ivo lowering the gun, callously counting down to the death of either the sister of the woman Oliver had loved for what had felt like forever, or the woman who had saved his life. The woman he incongruously thought he might love just as much as Laurel.

“Well?” Slade yelled, slamming a fist onto the steel table, denting it. 

“No,” Oliver said voice louder this time. The full body flinch from Oliver was reminiscent of that dumb kid that Yao Fei had rescued and not the man Oliver’s friends knew now. The sound of Slade’s fist echoed the shot that he heard in his head. 

“Professor Ivo, he told me to choose. So I threw myself in front of his gun. I chose myself.” Oliver’s voice gained momentum becoming more solid as he talked even if he kept seeing Shado being killed in his mind’s eye. “I wanted him to kill _me_... not them. Never either of them.” 

Felicity gasped but Diggle stepped on her toe again, more gently this time, before she could speak

Slade growled. “Liar.”

Oliver shook his head, still feeling like his thoughts were running through molasses. “It’s true. I wanted to tell you what happened immediately but Sara talked over me. You were so crazed and fuck, Shado. Shado was on the ground.” Oliver felt tears well up in his eyes that he couldn’t afford to experience at the time. There had been no time for grieving on the island, only time to grimly plow forward to survive. 

“It should have been _me_. I’m the one who ran headlong into trouble in the first place. I failed her, just like Yao Fei, you, Sara, the Glades…” Oliver felt the weight of all those failures, sagging his shoulders making his grip on his bow even looser. 

“No, Oliver, you can’t-” Felicity started, taking a step towards him away from Diggle’s cover. 

“It should have been you!” Slade said, losing all composure as well. He rushed Oliver tackling his unresisting form to the ground. 

Diggle turned and shoved Felicity back behind him, but he didn’t have a clean shot. Oliver and Slade were grappling on the floor and he was afraid he’d hit Oliver if he shot into the fray. He muttered a curse and holstered his gun, getting ready to wade into the fight.

“Dig we have to help him,” Felicity said urgently from behind Diggle. 

“I know, working on it.” Diggle was watching for an opening. “When I move you take cover and stay down. This will probably get ugly quick.”

“It isn’t already?” Felicity asked, voice small. 

“Stay back,” Oliver barked, taking his eyes off Slade for a moment and it cost him when a fist to the ribs caught him. He grunted and absorbed the impact as best he could despite feeling a rib or two crack. He didn’t want to hurt Slade, he wasn’t sure he _could_ hurt him. He struggled against Slade, holding his own with the skills he’d improved since he and Slade last sparred. 

It was still taking it’s toll. Oliver had to end this quick or his friends were going to get hurt.

Slade pulled his punches. He still hit Oliver and intended to leave him feeling those injuries for days. But he didn’t want to kill him. Especially not if what Oliver said was true. How could Slade believe him though, that’s not what the guards who had been there had told him.

A few of Oliver’s blows connected with Slade: head, ribs, shin… but they didn’t phase him just like Oliver knew they wouldn’t. It was going to be near impossible to beat Slade any way but with his words. 

With the truth.

Finally, Slade got Oliver into a sleeper hold, knees holding down Oliver’s thighs. “Stop lying. Tell them how you let Shado die.” 

Oliver grunted in frustration but he stopped struggling. It was useless and would be squandering the physical resources he had left. “I- tried- to-,” Oliver gasped for breath with the little air he was able to take in, “die in her- place-. You know- I loved her too. I loved- you both.” 

Slade lets out a roar and choked Oliver, hard enough that he couldn’t draw breath. 

“No!” Felicity broke away from Diggle and ran to try to pull Slade off Oliver. It was almost comical with her trying to drag Slade’s arm away from Oliver’s throat. Slade’s arm was like stone, unmoving. “Let him go!”

“Not a chance, girlie. This isn’t your fight-” pant, “run along now.” 

Oliver struggled, he couldn’t breath but he had no leverage in the position he was in. He clawed at Slade’s arms uselessly.

Felicity pulled back and gave Slade a punch in his remaining eye. It connected solidly. She shook out her hand with a groan herself from the force of it against her knuckles. 

The punch surprised Slade so much, he eased up and Oliver got a breath of air. 

Diggle had moved while Felicity was distracting Slade and he was close, gun trained on Slade’s head. “Let him-”

Slade’s hand whipped around and he disarmed Diggle with lightning fast speed. Diggle was thrown back into the concrete wall a few feet behind them hitting it with a loud thunk.

“Don’t hurt them Slade. Please don’t, they are innocents just like Shado and Sara were,” Oliver’s voice was broken and strained through his bruised throat. He pleaded hoping some of his friend was still there. That it wasn't all trapped deeply under the monster they had injected into him. He found a kernel of hope that the Slade he remembered from the island had really shown up here, in Starling City.

“You want to choose again?” Slade asked, holding Oliver still tightly pinned to the floor. 

“Me, for them?” Oliver asked quietly. 

“No! No no no no!” Felicity said as she swung her first again at Slade. “He’s telling the truth, you have to know what a shitty liar he is if you lived with him on that ‘deserted’ island. Let him go!” 

Slade avoided her punch easily without easing up his hold on Oliver.

Diggle staggered to his feet and moved to grab Slade but he was shoved back a few feet into the wall again with ease. 

“Please, Slade, don’t do this,” Oliver begged. “Don’t be as bad as the Professor. You’re better than this. You were, no you _are_ a good man. Killing me won’t bring her back.” Oliver shook his head. “If it would, I’d die for that. For her. But, nothing will bring her back and we _both_ have to live with that. Don’t-,” Oliver managed to turn enough to see Slade’s face with one eye. 

“Don’t throw away a chance at a future here for an empty revenge. You know Shado would never have wanted this.” He begged for his friends life, the lives of the innocents who would be killed or hurt without the Arrow there to stop the wrongdoers. He begged for Slade’s life as well, even if Slade couldn’t see it. Part of Oliver's friend had to still be in there, somewhere. 

Slade’s hands started to loosen their hold. What the girl had said was true, the kid was a total shit liar. If he kept saying that he tried to take their place, maybe...maybe that’s what happened. Ollie was that special blend of brave yet stupid who would sacrifice themselves versus attacking the threat directly. 

Oliver gasped for breath, and drawing in deep lungfuls of it. He didn’t move beyond breathing, waiting to see what Slade would do next. 

Felicity and Diggle both stared at them, taking in all that was happening. They’d learned more about Oliver’s time on the island in the last thirty minutes than they’d gleaned over the past year they’d known Oliver. 

When Slade started to let Oliver go, not saying a word; Oliver sensed his moment. He turned the tables as Slade went to move away, flipping them so that Oliver was the one over Slade instead of under him. He grabbed Slade’s collar, putting them nearly nose to nose. “Do you believe me? Do you?” 

Oliver had to know.

“Fuck you, you got her killed...it’s still your fault even...even if you tried to save her. You failed.” Slade let Oliver pin him, hold him down.

“I did. It’s because of me she’s dead.” Oliver readily agreed. He looked right into Slade’s eye. “She’s dead, and we’re alive. We survived against everything: Fyers, the ship, all that came after. She would hate you and I fighting like enemies. You know she loved us as much as we loved her.”

What happened next wasn’t planned by either man but Oliver’s lips were suddenly jammed against Slades, kissing with savage intensity. 

Felicity was so shocked she didn’t have a thing to say. She just stared as the two went from trying to kill each other to trading some of the roughest kisses she’d ever seen. 

“You’re alive,” Oliver whispered between bruising, punishing kisses. “Alive-” kiss, “alive-”, bite, “alive…” He couldn’t stop saying it or tasting Slade’s mouth again. It’d been _so_ long. The three of them had been together on the island, even if Slade had pretended it didn’t matter until it was too late.

Slade growled and bit Oliver every chance he got, drawing blood and smearing the tangy taste of copper between their mouths. This was as savage as that first time had been when their rough wrestling match turned to frantic dry humping and desperate kisses. Both of them had been starved for anything resembling release, before they'd had Shado with them. And then what happened after she joined them. That had been special and Oliver wouldn't trade those memories for anything, even knowing the pain that would come in the wake of Shado's death.

“Damn… you two. Get a room?” Felicity said. She stared, mouth hanging open a bit, as they continued kissing ignoring her and Diggle.

Diggle came over to her, having recovered from being thrown into the wall. “Come on. Oliver doesn’t need us here right now.” 

He put his arm around Felicity’s shoulders and started to lead her away. “He has got this covered.” 

Felicity looked back at the men rolling around on the floor making out like some kind of wild animals. “I think covered is only one of many ways to describe that. Did he just say that the three of them were-”

Diggle squeezed her shoulder to cut her off. “Come on, I’ll buy you some Big Belly Burger.” 

Oliver barely registered that his friends were leaving. He was so overwhelmed with all the feelings that were welling back up in him. The ones that he had avoided for so long because they were useless to feel for the dead. 

But Slade wasn’t dead. 

It was as if Oliver hadn't believed it until he felt Slade’s hard body against his. Slade kissed exactly the way he remembered, so rough like they were sparring. Directly in contrast to how gentle Slade was when he'd fucked Oliver. Never wanting to _really_ hurt ‘the kid.’

Oliver let out a breathy moan as those rough, calloused fingers dug into either side of Oliver’s spine, just like before. As if Slade was holding on for dear life. Maybe they were both clinging to one another; struggling with both fighting not to drown in the past, and trying to survive their present.

One of those that Oliver failed was miraculously here, alive and mostly whole. He had a second chance to make it right. A chance to redeem himself; to save his friend. If he succeeded there, then maybe there was a chance at what they couldn’t have on the island. 

Maybe, he had a chance at happiness.


End file.
